Logan County was established January 4, 1873, and organized September 1, 1884 with the town site of Napoleon designated as the county seat. On January 17, 1899 the court house was technically relocated to King, which had defeated Napoleon for the honors in the 1898 general election, but the results of this election were overturned by the courts, and Napoleon was restored as the county seat on September 30, 1899.

The county was named for General John Alexander Logan, a Civil War veteran from Illinois who served as a Congressman and US Senator, and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Vice President in 1884. The North Dakota county has an area of 1,003 square miles, and reached a peak population of 8,089 in 1930, with a decline to just 2,847 in 1990. Towns currently populated within the county are Burnstad, Fredonia, Gackle, Lehr, and Napoleon.